


"After It All"

by applecameron



Category: Sports Night
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-26
Updated: 2009-11-26
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/applecameron/pseuds/applecameron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A peek at the future.  Written November 2007.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"After It All"

Where else would Dan Rydell be, on Casey McCall's wedding day, but at his side? Running the show, laughing, joking, making it look effortless, like he married off his partner every day.

"You guys aren't allowed to fight anymore in rundown meetings, now." He told Dana, glorious in white, kissing her on the cheek.

"Oh, yes, we are!" The newlyweds chorused.

That moment was a long time ago. (That joyous room, those joyous people.)

Things had happened, since. Life had happened.

Dana and Casey moved into marriage like ham and eggs, Dan practically living in their house, only welcome, as he never had been with Lisa. Understood, though Dana could never say it out loud, never knew it herself. Just knew that part of what made Casey McCall's home was Daniel Rydell. The spare room wasn't spare, it was Dan's, and he did things a good husband would have, like painting the place while the two of them went off on a second honeymoon, this time to Egypt. Their first honeymoon had been a carriage ride in the park, sandwiched between the 4 and 8pm rundowns. When they reminisced about that day, it was never about the short time to enjoy wedded bliss, it was always about the on-air announcement by Dan that made everyone cry, and the custom titles Natalie wrangled out of Graphics behind Dana's back, the control room's gift to her on her wedding day.

Isaac gave the bride away when Jeremy and Natalie tied the knot, in Aruba, Natalie making her new husband wipe the zinc oxide off his nose for the photos, and him putting it right back on, after. Aruba. Dan called it the leggy supermodel of the Caribbean. Casey declared it wasn't thin enough to be Kate Moss, which led Dan to settle on Aruba, the Gisele Bundchen of the Caribbean. At which point, as was traditional, Casey told him not to talk anymore.

He never meant it. He had never meant it. Talking to each other was all these two knew how to do.

They talked for years, in and out of love, Dan's failed marriage with Rebecca, and when she came back years later they sat in the McCall garage, Charlie arguing about cranberry sauce with his stepmother on the other side of the door to the kitchen, and fought over whether he should take her back. Pushing AARP membership, eating too much at Thanksgiving, and dating his ex-wife. Who'da thunk it.

Dana understood the lay of the land, though not up top where the repartee was, only down in her bones, in the middle of the night, when Casey murmured stats in his sleep to the only man he'd ever loved, one arm wrapped around his wife.

When Charlie had his car accident and Rebecca called that Dan was screaming, screaming, oh, god, what do I do, it was Dana who piled everyone into a car and drove them together, Casey with arms wrapped around him, lips pressed to his forehead, desperately giving and taking comfort, guard down and at home in another man's heart.

Charlie lived. Casey lived. Dana lived. Dan and Rebecca broke up again and this time it was quits, man, finito, and they found a duplex upstate so Dan and Casey could convert one of the garages into an office and write books on the Red Sox, and someday maybe even one on women's field hockey, just for fun.

It was a good life. It was life, all together.


End file.
